400 migrants - including children - drowned in boat tragedy off Libya

The migrants died 24 hours after leaving Libya, with survivors saying several
young males were among the victims after their boat capsized

A Red Cross volunteer carries a baby wrapped in a blanket after migrants disembarked at the Sicilian Porto Empedocle harbour on MondayPhoto: AP

By AFP

11:52AM BST 15 Apr 2015

Up to 400 illegal migrants died after their vessel capsized off the Libyan coast on Sunday, survivors who were brought to Italy said, where tension is mounting over a surge in boat arrivals from north Africa.

The Italian coastguard on Monday said they had managed to rescue 145 on the sunken vessel, while nine bodies were also recovered.

But Commander Filippo Marini, coastguard spokesman, said that they had not found any more "survivors or anything else which would indicate more victims".

He said he could not exclude that more lives had been lost, and said the kind of vessel from which the 145 people were rescued usually carried many more people.

Search operations were continuing on Wednesday as part of ongoing naval and coastguard patrols in the area.

An Italian Guardia Costiera boat rescues migrants off the coast of Sicily on Monday (AP)

The International Organisation for Migration and the charity Save the Children said between 144 and 150 survivors arrived at Reggio Calabria, on Italy's southern tip, on Tuesday morning.

"There were 400 victims in this shipwreck, which occurred 24 hours after (their vessel) left the Libyan coast," Save the Children said in a statement, citing survivors.

"There were several young males, probably minors, among the victims" and also children among those rescued, the international NGO said.

"I ask the League's governors, mayors, assessors and councillors to say no, with every means, to every new arrival. The League is ready to occupy every hotel, hostel, school or barracks intended for the alleged refugees," Mr Salvini said on Facebook.

Greece said on Tuesday it was planning to set up reception centres on the mainland to deal with an influx of migrants arriving on its islands.

The decision at an emergency cabinet meeting chaired by Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, came after more than 700 migrants and refugees, mainly Syrians and Africans, arrived in Greece between Friday and Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Frontex on Tuesday said human traffickers had fired shots into the air to recover a vessel that had been used to transport migrants across the Mediterranean.

The incident happened on Monday when an Icelandic coastguard vessel was rescuing 250 people from a wooden boat some 60 nautical miles off Libya.

It was the second such incident this year after the Italian coastguard was confronted by armed traffickers in February, who ordered a boat be handed over once the rescue operation was complete.

People smuggling remains a lucrative business, with refugees and migrants rescued in the Mediterranean in February saying they paid $500 to $1,000 (£338 to £677) for their crossing.